Federal trade official to visit New Orleans on Thursday

Francisco Sánchez, the U.S. undersecretary of commerce for international trade, is slated to meet with officials from the World Trade Center of New Orleans on Thursday to mark a new partnership between the nonprofit and the federal agency aimed at helping local businesses export products and services to global markets.

The International Trade Administration, which Sánchez oversees, and the trade organization plan to employ joint marketing and education activities to boost New Orleans businesses' awareness about export opportunities.

Sánchez is also slated to meet with members of the New Orleans District Export Council and the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau to talk about local tourism in the years since Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to a press release from the World Trade Center.

In 2011, shipments of merchandise from Louisiana totaled more than $55 billion, 13 percent of which went to China, the state's largest export market, according to the press release.